frame

a rigid structure formed of relatively slender pieces, joined so as to surround sizable empty spaces or nonstructural panels, and generally used as a major support in building or engineering works, machinery, furniture, etc.

3.

a body, especially a human body, with reference to its size or build; physique:

He has a large frame.

4.

a structure for admitting or enclosing something:

a window frame.

5.

Usually, frames. (used with a plural verb) the framework for a pair of eyeglasses.

6.

form, constitution, or structure in general; system; order.

7.

a particular state, as of the mind:

an unhappy frame of mind.

8.

Movies. one of the successive pictures on a strip of film.

9.

Television. a single traversal by the electron beam of all the scanning lines on a television screen. In the U.S. this is a total of 525 lines traversed in 1/30 (0.033) second.

before 1000;1910-15for def 8;1920-25for def 25; (v.) Middle Englishframen to prepare (timber), Old Englishframian to avail, profit; cognate with Old Norseframa to further, Old High German (gi)framōn to do; (noun) Middle English, derivative of the v.

frame

an open structure that gives shape and support to something, such as the transverse stiffening ribs of a ship's hull or an aircraft's fuselage or the skeletal beams and uprights of a building

2.

an enclosing case or border into which something is fitted: the frame of a picture

3.

the system around which something is built up: the frame of government

4.

the structure of the human body

5.

a condition; state (esp in the phrase frame of mind)

6.

one of a series of individual exposures on a strip of film used in making motion pictures

an individual exposure on a film used in still photography

an individual picture in a comic strip

7.

a television picture scanned by one or more electron beams at a particular frequency

the area of the picture so formed

8.

(billiards, snooker)

the wooden triangle used to set up the balls

the balls when set up

a single game finished when all the balls have been potted US and Canadian equivalent (for senses 8a, 8b) rack

9.

(computing) (on a website) a self-contained section that functions independently from other parts; by using frames, a website designer can make some areas of a website remain constant while others change according to the choices made by the internet user

Old English framiae to avail; related to Old Frisian framia to carry out, Old Norse frama

Frame

/freɪm/

noun

1.

Janet. 1924–2004, and New Zealand writer: author of the novels Owls Do Cry (1957) and Faces in the Water (1961), the collection of verse The Pocket (1967), and volumes of autobiography including An Angel at My Table (1984), which was made into a film in 1990

The criminal slang sense of "blame an innocent person" (1920s) is probably from earlier sense of "plot in secret" (1900), perhaps ultimately from meaning "fabricate a story with evil intent," first attested 1510s. Related: Framed; framing.

n.

c.1200, "profit, benefit;" mid-13c. "composition, plan," from frame (v.) and from Scandinavian (cf. Old Norse frami "advancement"). In late 14c. it also meant "the rack."

Meaning "building" is from early 15c.; that of "border or case for a picture or pane of glass" is from c.1600. The meaning "established order, plan" and that of "human body" are both first recorded 1590s. Of bicycles, from 1871; of motor cars, from 1900. Frame of mind is from 1711. Frame of reference is 1897, from mechanics and graphing; the figurative sense is attested from 1924.